Big blow

Friday

Nov 2, 2012 at 2:00 AM

Every day seems to bring a new twist in the controversy over Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons technology. It’s becoming this century’s match for the bomb shelter and Star Wars fixations of the last.

Edward F. Maroney

Outsource By Gerald D. McLellan Xlibris, 2012 Hardcover, 342 pgs.,

Every day seems to bring a new twist in the controversy over Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons technology. It’s becoming this century’s match for the bomb shelter and Star Wars fixations of the last.

Flying right into the middle of the mess like Slim Pickens riding a nuke into the heart of Soviet Russia in Dr. Stranglelove is Gerald D. McLellan, a former Massachusetts judge and Cape resident now living in Florida. He’s cooked up a self-published contemporary thriller that asks what would happen if Israel “outsourced” the destruction of Iran’s nuclear capability.

Don’t be put off by the first couple chapters of Outsource. There’s an icky depiction of a fraternity hazing that’s followed by a nasty murder, neither of which have much to do with the rest of the book.

Things get rolling when McLellan’s paragon of a lead character, Ted Hurley, gets into Columbia Law School and meets classmate Asher Levin, an El Al pilot who still finds time to work on a law degree (it helps that he’s also a Mossad agent). Character development is scant: the good guys are too good, the bad guy the epitome of evil. Later in the book, however, a couple of minor characters are given rather fascinating backgrounds.

Yet this is mostly about exposition. McLellan moves his chessmen from dinners in New York to military bases to boats on the Atlantic and to Africa, but there’s much more talk than action.

What’s surprising, however, is how interesting that talk can be. Clearly, the author has kept up with current events, so his invented dialogs for Israeli and American leaders carry the weight of the possible. Other realistic elements include the stop-and-start nature of the surprise attack, beholden as it is to approval at the highest levels.

Whereas McLellan’s plotting is inventive and involving, he admits in his acknowledgments that he “simply [doesn’t] pay enough attention to spelling and punctuation when I am writing the story.” Here’s a catalog of the result:

• “…like Pilot asking the multitude whom they would like to save…”

• “…and he never told a sole.” • “…as if she was in charge of meeting out punishments…” • “…Prime Minister Began…” • “The warhead will be diffused…” • “Trusting soles aren’t they?” • “…as they were waived through the first gate.” • “He was thrilled at the site of Tel Aviv University…”

Small quibbles? Not really. When the action moves to the African nation of “Berundi,” the reader doesn’t know whether this is a made-up country or the real nation of Burundi.

This is McLellan’s fourth novel. It’s a good moment for him to consider just how serious he wants to be about this business of writing – even if it means he has to outsource his editing.